This is what the Beagle 2 might have looked like if it had landed successfully

In Context

The Beagle 2 probe was never heard from again.

An inquiry was set up by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the failure, reporting back in May 2004.

It concluded that there was too little investment at the start of the project, and said poor management was also to blame.

The inquiry concluded that the probe probably never made it to the Martian surface intact.

On 4 January 2004, a Nasa probe successfully landed on Mars and sent back astonishing images of the planet's surface.

The Spirit rover was joined by an identical second probe, named Opportunity, later the same month. Both probes have since found evidence of water vapour and water-influenced geology on Mars.

In November 2004, Colin Pillinger unveiled Beagle 3, a pod using the innovative ultra-light technology used in Beagle 2.

He hopes to persuade the ESA to include it in its 2009 launch of ExoMars, a mission to look for traces of life on the Red Planet.

In December 2005 Professor Pillinger claimed to have found photograhic evidence that Beagle 2 did land on Mars. It seems likely the craft was unable to make contact because onboard instruments were damaged by a harder-than-expected landing.